Marco Rubio Sells Out Conservatives By Bringing Back His Version Of The Kennedy/McCain Amnesty Plan

Marco Rubio swore up and down that he opposed amnesty for illegal aliens when he ran for the Senate. In fact, in a teleconference I was on with Rubio and DeMint back in 2009, he had this to say about amnesty.

On your website, you take a tough anti-illegal stance, but I’ve heard complaints that people didn’t like your stance on illegal immigration when you were Speaker of the House in Florida. (Question from me to Marco Rubio)

There were a number of bills that didn’t pass when I was Speaker. They didn’t have the votes. Those bills didn’t pass this year either. It’s not that I stopped them, but I was blamed by some people for those bills not making it through.

I believe we need to secure our borders and fix our VISA program. Only after we do that can we move on to fixing legal immigration and other issues like guest worker programs. We need to secure our borders before we even talk about something like a guest worker program – but, I am not in favor of amnesty. I think it would be demoralizing and destructive.

Rubio, the son of immigrants and one of the most-influential Republican senators, last week released a passel of immigration proposals he’s working on by himself and with others.

“Washington has run away from problems for years and punted them for future generations to solve,” Rubio said. “I’ve disagreed with some ideas offered in past debates and the way the issue’s been handled, so it’s our responsibility to offer solutions that modernize our legal immigration system, strengthen security and enforcement measures, and deal with the undocumented population in a humane way that doesn’t give them a special advantage over immigrants trying to come legally.”

Rubio called for more high-skilled workers to legally enter and remain in the country, expand guest-worker permits for lower-skilled laborers such as farm workers and streamline the process.

Rubio also wants to legalize the status of many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. He said they’d have to pay fines, back taxes and prove they’re not criminals. In return, they’d be given what’s known as “non-resident legal status.” Then after a number of a number of to-be-determined years, they’d have an opportunity to apply for permanent residency and receive a green card.

Rubio says he wants young people who are illegally in this country to be given a pathway to residency if they go to school and or the military. Former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, has endorsed Rubio’s plan.

Well, he wants to run for President in 2016. By betraying the conservatives who helped him beat back Charlie Crist in 2016, he’ll gain the support of the GOP Establishment. He’ll also rack up donations from corrupt businessmen who want cheap labor that everyone else has to pay for. Would it help Rubio with Hispanic voters? Maybe for an election cycle. Maybe.

But, it would kill the GOP.

It would depress the base and cost millions of conservative votes. Additionally, if amnesty for illegals were enough to bring Hispanic voters to the GOP, they’d already be voting Republican. After all, Reagan already went along with a “one time” amnesty back in 1986. The GOP’s problem attracting Hispanic voters has a lot more to do with our terrible messaging and refusal to do outreach than illegal immigration.

You also have to keep in mind that illegal aliens are overwhelmingly uneducated, poor, manual laborers who came to this country illegally. The GOP would be lucky to EVER get more than 20% of those 10-12 million voters while Hispanic Americans would be right back to voting for the GOP at a 30% clip by 2018. Meanwhile, the latest amnesty would encourage even more illegal aliens to cross the border in preparation for the next inevitable amnesty, which politicians like Marco Rubio will be encouraging us to go along with in another decade or so.

Does anyone really think the Democratic Party would even consider amnesty if it could genuinely help the GOP with Hispanics? Of course, not. But, Marco Rubio thinks it might help him become President; so he’s willing to sell the country and the conservative movement down the river to do it.